Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Speculation on what Races and Classes might be announced at Panel From Hell

Be nice if they mentioned multi classing

Half-orc and monk. And that’s perfectly fine. Duergar and Dragonborn would be also good.

I would love if they kept a “classic” selection of races and classes for FR, no cat people and extra dimensional people pls.

Even artificer feels out of place in Forgotten Realms.

Concidering Tieflings ... this seems like contradicting yourself.
Also ... why? If you dont like cat people, just dont pick them.

I partly agree with you. I'd add Dragonborn into the undesirables, though, as these are not "classic" either.

I agree, multiclassing would be neat.

Eeeh... In a game called Dungeons and Dragons, I am personally fine with the "dragon" race being in the default line up.

Since they are one of PHB races, wich is like most basic rulebook for DnD ...
How do you define "classic" ? O_o

I love 5e, i think the entire game idea was one step in the right idea... but and this is my personal refelction, for me when i say classic i look to the core books, basically phb and dmg... now anything that is added later is good ideas, the problem is in many cases everything gets better and better with every expansion that is tacked on... This gets in my opinion very clear if you compare the basic feats, with for example later feats in expansions... To me it feels like They made 5e, and then they allowed alot of other studios and people to create expansions, and the cheese grew with every new book... so most of it is good idea, it jsut needs to be compromised so it is on same level... or relativly... wich is why im happy with DnD one and the alpha and beta testing iwe done...

So yea, im not sure how to say "classic" more then keeping everything inline with the core books PHB and DMG if that makes sense...

PS and as for the Artificer, yea, that is a rather good example of good idea, but gets utterly broken and over powered at high levels...
PS as for Larians 5e take, its not bad and a computor game will allways turn alittle difrent from table top, but Larian must fix action costs, and fix sneaking and showing lol... that being said, even if its broken i will love the game !

I'll admit that I prefer it when there's canon lore explaining how new races came to be on Toril if they've not been there previously, and just the fact that something is in the D&D ruleset is not enough for me without such a story (given that while the ruleset is setting-independent some elements were designed with specific, non-FR or non-Toril settings in mind). But I'm not overly fussy about what the stories are, and within reason am happy that WotC actively look for opportunities to make as many D&D races, classes, etc as possible available to players in whatever setting they prefer. Players or DMs always have the option to elect not to include new races/classes in their home games. New additions will inevitably impinge in PC games, unless they're restricted just to optional player characters, which would probably feel a bit weird to me unless it were somehow made plausible they were the only exemplar of their kind around, but I'd rather err on the side of too much inclusivity than too little.

I believe there's already a story about how Dragonborn came to Abeir-Toril when the worlds collided for 4e and (some) were left when they separated again for 5e. Being a 5e newbie, I'm not aware of what if any lore there is for the other races or the artificer class, excepting Warforged which I understand have been specific to Eberron. But as long as there are explanations then I'd be happy for anyone to appear in the game, and indeed for Larian/WotC to make up explanations if they want!

I'm more picky in other contexts, but for me FR and Toril's as a setting in which people can enjoy roleplaying games and telling the stories they want to tell trumps things like narrative plausibility that I'd prioritise more highly in other media.

I dunno ...
Lately i find out that some things are better keep unanswered.

As here, when people ask "why would illithid infect a Warforged" ?
I dont know! Im not an illithid, he probably just want to.
Would it be too bad to just leave it open?

As I am an Old Fart anything added after 2000 (or 3/3.5ed) is not classic.
But feel free to ignore my ramblings

My preference, and it is just my preference, is for some explanation but generally not too much. That is, just enough explanation to make me feel that it's plausible something is present or has happened without enough detail to make it obvious how implausible that explanation is . For me, Larian got it right with, for example, the teleport circles. Saying they're Netherese (ie ancient, weird magic that has an established place in the lore) is enough of an explanation to make me feel that they're an acceptable in-universe mechanism, but if they tried to tell me more about them then chances are my credulity would rebel. I can't think of any Larian-specific examples of that off hand, but for instance the hokum about midi-chlorians in the second (first?) Star Wars trilogy.

Dragonborn...I guess I don't *hate* them. They seemed like something more at home in Eberron, and they feel more than a little like Draconian knock-offs. Their introduction was poor-the whole 'abeir-toril was two worlds all along and now we are mashing them back together' WoTC pulled from their nether-regions will never be *good* and Dragonborn will always be tainted by that to a degree IMO. Of course, WoTC were a bit on-the-nose with how they were designed to be the 'paladin' race and that unfortunate pigeonholing didn't do them any favors when justifying their sudden widespread existence all over faerun.

I think I prefer the 3.5 dragonborn, since they came about on a case-by-case basis via a specific rare ritual done be devotees of Bahamut IIRC. Rare enough not to noticeably change the setting, with their own little weird backstory. 4e-style dragonborn waaaay overpopulate the realms for how long they have been here, and it's weird how they have almost 'pushed out' realmsian intelligent reptillians like Lizardfolk, Saurials, Asabi etc. I would have rather seen them pushed as reptillian options for players and to see them get more fleshed out as far as their societies.

@Leucrotta Agreed. While a good DM should find a way to let players create any sort of character they want to play, the introduction of new species should be done in a way that fits with the setting. The transformation ritual you mention or some portal to Ebberon that opens but not "because two worlds were smashed together every other shop keeper is now a dragonborn"

I wish WotC would have borrowed from Dr. Who or Star Trek to undo the 4e damage. And they already crafted the tools they needed! They had already written a time travel plot in the form of the dawn cataclysm story. Mystra and Amaunator battle to decide who controls the portfolio of Time, that battle creates a fracture in time, some adventurers heal that fracture and suddenly time is reset. The spellplague, the smashing of Abir-Toril etc becomes an alternate reality where the 4e rules still apply and 5e starts a few years after the Bhaalspawn crisis.

I'll be honest, I'm bit of a racist. I don't really like beast races. It's weird seeing animals talking like people. Not even sorry

I'm.... OK with it I guess, but I feel like they should be kept a bit 'special' through rarity and they absolutely shouldn't be used interchangeably with humans. Long-lived races like elves/dwares etc in particular should already have a different perspective on life, and while that tends to shine through in the novels more, less so in video games. You could make Asterion a human and it would change absolutely nothing about his character.

But in regard to more exotic playable species- remember the Kuo-Toa from this game, or the Sahuagin from the second game? I like to see animalfolk more like that-at least a bit alien in mindset. The 'Lizard in a ballgown' sort of novelty you get with overexposure by making them too commonplace and too human in mindset/culture wears off quickly and choice of race just becomes a fashion choice for the player.

Tieflings are native to FR. Cat ppl and metal ppl are not. I meant that I'd like if they kept a classic / canon Forgotten Realms selection.

For sure I'd never pick a cat as a main character, but if they were in the game - they would be present as NPCs, companions, enemies etc. Which totally ruins immersion.


Agreed. This whole 4E Abeir Toril and teleportation of a whole race to Faerun is... iffy. They are outsiders in FR, but WotC went to such length to make it canon, so I guess we must accept that Dragonborn are now officially a Forgotten Realms race.

I ... m affraid i dont follow, how can race that (even tho rarely, since there isnt much of them) but still naturally occur in the world can "ruin immersion". :-/

Ok, you dont like them, you dont like to meet them, you would preffer if they wouldnt be here at all ...
That part i get.

But why talk about immersion, especialy since its so obvious that this is just an excuse? :-/

I think ladydub assumed that every playable races have to be represented equally. While it is obviously not the case, it would make more sense for Larian not to include exotic races : a new race is a big investment since you have to add tons of cosmetic and narrative options. It makes more sense to invest development time on something that can be reused as much as possible.

I honestly dont even know how am i supposed to understand this sentence.

Cant say i agree ...
I mean, yes it is a big investment ... but as Larian presents it, the game overall was much biger investment than they presumed originally ... in their last promotion material, they clearly stated that city itself was 3-4 times biger investment than originaly expected.

So as it seems, Larian is not affraid of big investments, if they are worth it.

And concidering how many players is beging around here/discord/twitter/reddit for exotic races ... this certainly feel like one of those wich players will appreciate.

Like what?